Baby Fever

My boys having fun in the tent!

Yes...it's been baby fever in our house, but not because of me! Isaiah's been running a fever since Wednesday afternoon, so he and I have pretty much been stuck at home for the past few days, so I don't really have anything fun to report with this post. I have taken a lot of pictures of Isaiah (mostly dressed only in a diaper) because it gives us something to do and he loves saying "cheese" for Mommy. He reminds me of Bill and Shellie's kids...they were always ready for picture taking because she did it so much, so I guess I'm following in your footsteps Shell!

Wearing Daddy's glasses

We did get out of the house on Tuesday and went to our friend Kristen's house. Jessie's parents arrived for a visit on Wednesday and she wanted to be able to clean her place before they came, so Kristen and I had all 3 boys (Isaiah, Brody, & Beau) for a couple of hours while Jessie cleaned. When Jessie got back to Kristen's we made lunch together and let the boys play for a bit before we headed home. Isaiah took a pretty good nap for me in the afternoon. After dinner we washed out comforter and because it doesn't dry too well in the dryer, we hung it up in the living room on our dining chairs and let Isaiah play under it like a tent for the evening while Josh and I got a chance to watch a little TV together. Isaiah thought it was the greatest thing, so I have the feeling we'll be doing that again in the future!

Our sleeping sick little man Wednesday night at bedtime

Isaiah seemed okay Wednesday morning, but went down for his nap early before lunch. He woke up and seemed fine and ate a good lunch for me, but after lunch I was holding him and realized he felt really hot! I took his temperature and it was 101.9, so we started with the tylenol. He seems to be perfectly happy most of the time when he has had his motrin or tylenol to keep his fever down and this afternoon, finally he doesn't feel warm after having motrin at about 8am, so I hoping that means NO MORE FEVER! So...we'll see how it goes the rest of the day, but I'm hoping Isaiah feels better tomorrow and we can get OUT of the house!!!

He's turning out to be quite a little ham for the camera!

Josh had 2 exams this past week (one Monday and one Wednesday). He did well on both of them, but as always not quite as well as he would've liked to. He's really been stressing himself out about grades and I told him that he needs to lighten up just a little, otherwise vet school will be all over and he won't have any fun stories to tell! He has an anatomy quiz coming up next week (and possibly a "pop" parasitology quiz as well) so he's already been back at studying to do his best on that to hopefully take a little bit of the stress off of finals if he can do well.

Yes...those are baby Q-tips in his ears!

(He fell in the yard yesterday and whacked his head..as if the fever wasn't bad enough!)

With 4 weeks left until we come home...I CAN'T WAIT! This semester has been particularly stressful with Josh having so much time on campus and even less time at home with Isaiah and I than last semester. We're hoping that next semester will be a little less stressful with Josh having a bit of a lighter schedule in terms of in class time and hopefully a little more time to relax and be with us! We can't wait to get home to see everybody next month. Josh and I are excited to see how much Ella and Lydia have grown and to meet new babies Sydney and Shane for the first time too! We hope we'll have time to visit with everyone while we're in Everett and are looking forward to a break from our new island life!

Let's PLAY! Let's PLAY!

Isaiah giving me a good "Cheese" while he played

My boys having a blast together!

I wasn't going to post again this soon because it usually takes me 3 or 4 days to get enough good photos to make it worth it, but I felt like I got enough good ones over the weekend that I should go ahead and post today. On Saturday morning, Isaiah and I took Josh to school in the morning so we could have the car incase we wanted to go to the beach with friends. When we dropped Josh off, I took Isaiah to the prep school to play on the play structure they have there for the kids. I like to take him later in the day or on the weekends when school isn't in session, so that I can climb around with Isaiah and help him. He LOVES climbing around and going down the slide, but he's a little too small sometimes to do all the climbing and sometimes needs a little boost here and there. He had a great time playing and then we headed home. I started to feel a little nauseated (I think I ate some bad sour cream) so we ended up just chilling here at home. Isaiah started to get a little antsy before we needed to pick Josh up, so we headed back to school early and went to play some more! When Josh got finished with his LAST dog walking session, he came to meet us at the school and he started crawling through with Isaiah and playing and Isaiah had SO MUCH fun playing with his Daddy! It was so much fun for me too to watch my boys having such a good time!

A picture of the play structure at Ross' prep school

Isaiah playing with a naked Beau at Rocky's beach

Yesterday, we headed to church in the morning and Isaiah got to play with his buddies, Elijah and Adrian. We came home and Josh headed to school to study (he had an exam today in Physio and has another one in Immunology on Wednesday) and Isaiah went down for a nap early. I think he wore himself out chasing his little friends around at church! When Isaiah woke up we headed to Rocky's beach in Bird Rock to meet up with some of the other kids and Moms from our weekly swimming group. We had never been there before and it turned out to be a really great beach for the kiddos! Isaiah had a great time and for the first time since he started crawling I actually got to SIT down at the beach while he played in ONE SPOT for about 20 minutes! It gives me hope that the future can be a little less stressful when we head to the beach together! It was nice and sunny when we first got there, but we had a couple quick sprinkle showers and then finally when Isaiah was about ready to head home anyway, the skies let loose and it started pouring! It rained our whole drive home and we had a couple other showers during the afternoon too. We went to pick Josh up from school around 5:30, headed home, and got ready to head to our weekly Bible studies. Isaiah went with me and again, I was really surprised at how well he played without my FULL attention, which again gives me hope that in the future I will be able to get a little bit more done with him at home with me!

Cute pic of Beau smiling (he's a bit of a nudist at the beach!)

Isaiah posing and giving me his best smile

(Sorry...I edited the photos, but when I upload them they're not staying turned)

Today we went and picked up Jessie and Beau to run some errands together. We went to TDC (the hardware/home store), stopped at Digicel (so I could buy Josh a new phone to replace the one he lost!), and then went to IGA for groceries before we came home. Isaiah was pooped after all that running around and has now been asleep for about 2 hours. If he wakes up soon we're going to the nursing school a little before 3 for a Mock disaster (we're going to be the Mock victims) and then I have choir practice tonight. Hope everyone is doing well at home! We love you!

Me and my favorite little man!

Below is a short video of Josh swinging Isaiah in the play structure on Saturday. You can hear Isaiah making noise as he swings...it almost sounds like he's saying "Wee" over and over!

Fun Family times :)

Isaiah napping yesterday with his Leap Frog (from cousin Sarah) and his Blankie (from Mimi)

I'm trying to keep up with my blogging so that each post doesn't take me quite as long to upload everything and you guys get to stay a little more updated with what's going on. This week has been a little crazy with Josh's dog walking duties at school, but this afternoon will be his LAST walking session and we'll be glad to return to a more normal schedule and I know Josh will be glad to get to sleep past 6 am next week!!! Isaiah and I spent the day at home on Wednesday still trying to recover from our colds. We did make it to worship team practice and got to have a homemade dinner by Jakki before practice. She made an Irish soup recipe she got from Emeril and made some cheesy potatoes that were fantastic! Alexa also made cupcakes and put Lucky Charms and made her own green sprinkles to put on top, so we had a very festive St. Patrick's Day dinner! Practice went well and it was nice for Isaiah and I to spend some time with friends and be out of the house for a bit!

Ornry Boy!

Thursday we dropped our car off with a fellow VIP who works with cars. Kevin changed our oil and replaced a fuel filter which he thinks might have been causing our stalling problem we've been having the past few weeks. The car seems to be running MUCH better since that was done, so I'm hoping that did fix the problem! Kevin also said that we need to get our A/C belt changed, which we pretty much knew, so now we have to figure out a time in our schedules when we can get that taken care of! After we dropped off the car, we walked down to meet Jessie and Beau at their place and hung out with them for a little bit before we all walked together down to the Royal St. Kitts for our weekly swim time with the other kids and Moms. We had a nice time and Isaiah LOVED the pool time, socializing with other kids, and running around the pool!

"Cheese" for the camera

Yesterday we headed to campus with Jessie and Beau in the morning to help with a VIP fundraiser. We sold Nachos at lunchtime on campus to students and part of the proceeds are going to go to the Children's home here, which is the orphanage on St. Kitts, so that's nice. I don't think I really helped because I was busy chasing Isaiah around the whole time, but Jessie said that we attracted customers with our cute babies, so hopefully we did something! We also got to eat lunch with Josh at school and it was so nice to spend some time with him in the middle of the day! We need to start doing that more regularly because we all really enjoy it!

What a little ham!

Today we took Josh to school this morning and then I took Isaiah to the prep school to play on their play structure thing and climb around and burn off some energy. Of course, Isaiah is a little young to crawl through it by himself, so I end up going with him most of the time. I think he really enjoyed himself!!! Now we're back home and I'm thinking Isaiah will be ready for a nap in maybe another hour or so. We might head to the beach with Jen and Ava this afternoon if the kids' naptimes work out with eachother. This morning I talked to Jen and she said, "All right kids, lets sychronize our naps!" So, we'll see if that works out. If not, that's ok. I think we're going to head to the beach with Jessie and Beau tomorrow too, so will be okay if we just hang out here today.

My boys = My world

I hope everything is going well at home! Congrats to Bruce and Roxanne Maxwell on the arrival of their new son, Kevin Elijah last week! Baby boys are so much fun! (Of course I'm sure baby girls are too....I just don't happen to know personally yet!) I hope you all are enjoying a little more sunshine and the warmer weather. It's still terribly hot here and miserable most of the time, so I wish I was there to have a little bit of early springtime weather with all of you! I think I counted wrong before and now I think it's 5 weeks from now that we'll be home, so I'll keep counting down the days and we can't wait to see everyone again!

Please enjoy the video we took of Isaiah last night. We were reading a book and Josh was doing animal sounds and Isaiah started trying to imitate them and we were really cracking up!!!

Troutman family visit

Isaiah dressed and ready to go to Autum's bday dinner...he looks so grown up!

So we've had a busy past week or so with a visit from Karen, Tim, Andrew, Jen, and Daniel from back in PA!!! It was so nice to have them here for the week and even though it got off to a rough start and they had a bit of a stressful time getting home, we still managed to have a pretty enjoyable week. The first night they were here, Josh came home from school and we all headed to dinner at Ciao, which is an Italian place down by the Marriott that we love. Sunday it rained pretty much all day, so we just hung out at our place and then got them moved into their condo where they stayed for the rest of the week. Their place at Sealofts was nice and I think they liked having their own kitchen and living room to hang out. We made it to the beach just about everyday I think even though most of our mornings were rainy! We got to visit a couple of new beaches that even I hadn't been too yet (you know Uncle Tim and how he likes to venture off the beaten path!). I also got to take them to Caribelle Batik and Brimstone Hill to see the fortress there. We also went to port a couple of different mornings for them to get any souvenirs they wanted and I think everyone was happy with what they found to take home! Tim and the boys went snorkeling every place we hit the beach and they had quite a collection of shells, sea urchins, conch shells, and sandollars to take home! I told Aunt Karen that the island was probably lighter after they left! Isaiah had a wonderful week with Jen and Karen especially, although he surprisingly also warmed up to the boys (especially if they were willing to take him somewhere he wanted to go!). Josh had a really busy week with 2 tests last week, so we didn't get to see him much and that was part of the reason I was so thankful to have some of my other family here with us!!! They kept Isaiah and I busy and it made it a little easier to not see Josh so much! Thanks for coming guys!!! I have some pictures from their visit. I think there was a smudge on the lens of my camera though because most of them are a little fussy, but you can still get the idea!

Jen and Isaiah at the Marriott Beach on Monday

Looking good in Jennifer's sunglasses!

Isaiah and I on our catamaran trip on Tuesday

View of St. Eustacius from Brimstone Hill

Me and Isaiah at Brimstone Hill

We ran into Isaiah's buddy, Elijah at Brimstone Hill too!

The Troutmans at Caribelle Batik/Romney Manor

Isaiah being goofy with 2 binkies in at the same time!!!

Isaiah and I have both been fighting a cold since the Troutmans left, so we've been mostly staying indoors and trying to get lots of rest! I think we're both starting to feel better and now if we can just get rid of our cough we'll both be good to go! I hope all is going well at home. Things are continuing to go well here. Josh is doing his dog walking this week (2nd semesters get assigned a week to walk kennel dogs in the morning and evening), so he's been quite busy and going to school early and staying a little later to get all 3 of his dogs taken care of. We did get out last night for dinner at Rock Lobster to celebrate our friend, Autum's 27th birthday! Isaiah had a good time hanging out with his buddy, Damon at the restaurant! Tomorrow we're hopefully going to hang out with Jessie and Beau in the morning and then head to our weekly swimming play date at the Royal St. Kitts with the other Mommies, so that should be fun and good for both of us to get out of the house! We love you all and can't wait to come home!

Big beautiful brown eyes and look at all those teeth!

My 26th Birthday and the celebrations...

Friends: Isaiah, Me, Beau, Jessie, Kristen, & Brody

I can't believe that I'm 26! Don't worry...I'm not complaining about being old. I just feel like I was finally getting used to being 25 and it's gone already! The last year has been full of blessings from God and having my birthday yesterday helped me to realize how truly blessed I am in my life! This past year with Isaiah has been incredible and especially since we moved and being able to watch him grow and change everyday has been like a miracle for me! I was remembering last year that on my 25th birthday was when we found out that Josh got accepted to Ross and a year later a lot has definitely changed for us! I think it's mostly for the better! Of course we wish we didn't have to be this far away from our families and friends back home for Josh to get his education, but other than that we've been really lucky. God has definitely provided for us in our move here with a great place to live, a car that runs (most of the time!), and a great group of friends we have for support here, as well as a loving family and group of friends at home that keep us going! So....if this next year is anything like the last one...bring it on!

Big brown eyes

Big man Beau

Smiley Brody

So....on Tuesday Isaiah and I went to campus to hand in my passport so that they can stamp it now that my VISA has been approved and we decided that since we were going to campus anyway we'd meet up with Josh for lunch. We had leftover taco stuff from Monday evening, so we took that along and got to eat lunch with Josh and some of our friends. It was nice to see Josh in the middle of the day and definitely nice for Isaiah to see his Daddy and get a break from being stuck with just Mommy all day long! It was a nice break in the middle of our day and I think Isaiah, Josh, and I all enjoyed it. We might have to start doing it more often!

Happy Zay

Yesterday was of course my birthday and we celebrated by meeting Kristen & Brody, and Jessie & Beau for lunch at the Marriott's Cafe Calypso. It was really nice to get to hang out with them and have lunch. The Marriott is a nice place for us to take the boys since they always have enough high chairs for all of them to use! After lunch we were waiting for our change, but the boys were ready to be out of the high chairs, so we took them out of the waiting area and let them loose! I think the boys had a great time chasing after each other, the Moms had a good time watching the boys have so much fun, and I think the staff and guests enjoyed the entertainment too! We ended up letting them play and run around for over a half hour before we headed home! Isaiah definitely took a good nap for me after all that playing with Brody and Beau!!!

Josh and I at the Beach House for dinner

So nice to have a date night with my hubby!

Josh and the beach

Last night, Josh took me out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. Our friends, Erin and Harley brought their son Damon over to our place and babysat Isaiah for us while we headed to the Beach House for dinner. The restaurant was amazing. It was definitely a fine dining experience, right on the water with the most gorgeous furnishings and drapes and lighting. The food was also quite good. Before we got our dinner, our waitress brought us each a little crabcake compliments of the chef, which were really good (I ate both mine and Josh's since he doesn't eat meat). Josh really liked his squash and sweet potato soup and we both enjoyed our pasta entrees. While we waited for our dessert, we took a walk around the grounds and out onto the dock near our table. It was a really pretty night, very quiet, and it was nice to be holding each other looking up at the stars. Josh got the pineapple ravioli for dessert (which was pineapple sorbet sandwiched in between thin slices of grilled pineapple) and I had the chocolate coulant (chocolate cake with fudge inside and served with vanilla ice cream). We both left very full and happy to have had some time to spend together where we could just talk and not be worrying about chasing Isaiah around or picking up his toys as he threw them on the floor! Isaiah had a wonderful evening playing with Damon and didn't even notice we were gone!

The view from our table at the Beach House

Josh with his Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

My Entree: Garlic Shrimp Pasta

Josh's Entree: Penne Oasis

Beautiful views

A view of the restaurant

All in all, I had one of my best birthdays to date. Time with Josh is even more special to me, especially during this semester when it seems like we only see each other in passing! I hope you all enjoy the pictures and I will try to post again soon. The Troutman's are coming for their visit and are arriving on Saturday, so there should be some pictures coming next week of us together during their time here in St. Kitts with us!

Perfect night!

Mid-semester Break! :)

The FOUR Amigos!

So I guess we're finally getting back to normal and not so terribly sad that Mom is back home....those first few days without her here were pretty rough though! So now I'll get you up to date on the last few days of the goings on here in St. Kitts. On Thursday we headed to the Royal St. Kitts for our usual parents and kids time at the pool there. Isaiah had a really fun time and it's nice now that he's becoming more interactive with other kids. He really enjoyed being around the other kids and got excited to see other kids swimming and playing in the pool too, which was great! The floaty that Lynne sent and the swimmies my Mom brought have been working great. I still have to hold on to Isaiah so he doesn't tip forward, but most of the time I just hold on to the floaty, so he feels pretty independent motoring around the pool!

Isaiah collecting some of Damon's sand toys

On Friday and Saturday we were pretty much just in the house all day because Isaiah had a little cold right now and really wasn't a happy camper especially on Friday. He still has a bit of a runny nose and a cough, but he seems to not be bothered by it at all today. We did go to Jakki and Joe's and took Chinese food for dinner on Saturday evening and had a great time hanging out with them! We even played a game of Scattergories after dinner and had a really fun night! Saturday I did get out of the house during the day to take Isaiah to the grocery store to get some things we needed, so that was nice too just to get out for a bit!

Sweet little Brody

Yesterday we went to church in the morning then came home for Isaiah to nap. Josh and I were planning on going to the beach, but decided just to enjoy the rest of the morning doing things around the house together and let Isaiah get a good nap in. Then we went to Jason and Jen's apartment complex for a pool party and BBQ to celebrate mid-semester break, which meant that all the students had today (Monday) off to recuperate a little and prepare for the 2nd half of the semester. I can't believe we're already halfway done, but Josh is doing great so far. We're just praying he can keep it up and have a great 2nd semester!!!

Damon gave me a good smile before they headed home

Isaiah hugging his buddy Brody

Today, Josh headed to school this morning to study for the day to try to begin to prepare for his 2 exams next week and Isaiah and I headed to the beach with Jakki around lunchtime. Isaiah fell asleep in the car and slept through lunch at the beach bar/grill at Reggae when we got there. We joined Harley & Damon, Jessie & Beau, and Kristen & Brody at lunch and spent some time hanging out in the water and on the beach with them too. After getting them out of the water, all the boys were changed into their diapers and that's where all the cute pictures are from this post! We had a really nice time and now we're back home in the A/C! It's been ridiculously hot here the past few weeks and I'm praying for a little cool down!!! Love to everyone at home and a shoutout to Grandma and Grandad Hood who I've learned have been enjoying the blog with their new internet use!!! Below I've included some scenic pictures I took while Mom was here I hope you enjoy. We love you all...have a great week!

South Friar's Bay

Gorgeous water headed back toward Frigate Bay from the peninsula

A look down the peninsula toward Nevis

The coast off of Ross' Campus